High intensity directional electroacoustic sound generating system for communications targeting

• US 20050286346A1
• Filed: 05/16/2005
• Published: 12/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: American Technology Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: American Technology Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Conrad, Terry, Croft, James J. III, Beauchamp, Todd
• Application Number:
  US11/131,453
• Publication Number:
  US 20050286346A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 367/140
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/346 using phase variation
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 15/04 Sound-producing devices G10K15/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/403 loud-speakers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 17/00 Piezoelectric transducers; Electrostrictive transducers piezoelectric or electrostrictive elements in general H10N30/00; details of piezoelectric or electrostrictive motors, generators or positioners H10N30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2217/03 Parametric transducers where sound is generated or captured by the acoustic demodulation of amplitude modulated ultrasonic waves
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/12 for distributing signals to two or more loudspeakers specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

A compact lightweight electro-acoustic transducer system for generating high intensity, highly directional audio output. The transducer system can generate acoustic intensity levels that can drive the transmission medium to non-linearity such that highly directional secondary sound also can appear in the audible range allowing direct and parametric sound generation from a single acoustic emission system. The device can be used for both distant and/or high intensity communications to convey information, provide high intensity acoustical targeting and/or disrupt or mask other communications.

Claims

1. An electro-acoustic sound generator system for generating a high intensity directional sound column in a far field comprising:

an acoustic emitter with at least one transducer acoustic emission region;

at least one power amplifier channel adapted to receive at least an audio signal;

at least a length of the emitter being scaled to be at least four times a wavelength of a lowest frequency of at least one maximum acoustic output primary acoustic signal;

at least a depth of the emitter being scaled to be less than one fourth the dimension of the length; and

the emitter being configured and tuned to exhibit high efficiency over at least a narrow bandwidth corresponding to a frequency range of maximum sensitivity of a human auditory system, to generate a directed high intensity sound beam with an axial acoustic output of at least 140 dB at a minimum of 2 meters.

2. The sound generator of claim 1 wherein the acoustic emitter consists of multiple transducer acoustic emission regions.

3. The sound generator of claim 2 wherein the multiple acoustic transducer emission regions are staggered for optimal packing density and grouped such that each group is in a different mounting plane.

4. The sound generator of claim 3 wherein at least two groups of transducers in one plane relative to another plane are driven in different phase relationships to maximize axial summation of output in the far field.

5. The sound generator of claim 1 wherein at least one primary acoustic signal is between 1500 and 4000 Hz.

6. The sound generator of claim 5 wherein the length of the acoustic emitter is at least 0.33 meter.

7. The sound generator of claim 5 wherein the length of the acoustic emitter is at least 0.5 meters.

8. The sound generator of claim 5 wherein the length of the acoustic emitter is at least 0.75 meters.

9. The sound generator of claim 5 wherein the emitter is substantially circular in form and has a diameter of at least 0.75 meters.

10. The sound generator of claim 5 wherein the emitter is substantially rectangular in form and has a cross section of at least 0.5 square meters.

11. The sound generator of claim 1 wherein the directed high intensity sound beam is capable of intensity greater than what is linearly sustainable in an air medium.

12. The sound generator of claim 11 wherein the emitter is configured to generate at least two primary acoustic signal frequencies in an audible range that create at least one secondary acoustic signal in a lower audible frequency range corresponding to a difference tone frequency of the two primary acoustic signal frequencies.

13. The sound generator of claim 11 wherein the emitter is configured to generate at least two primary acoustic signal frequencies in an audible range that creates at least one secondary acoustic signal in an upper audible range frequency corresponding to a sum tone frequency of the two primary acoustic signal frequencies.

14. The sound generator of claim 1 wherein the sound generator is operable as a parametric loudspeaker with primary and secondary frequencies both generated in the range of human hearing.

15. The sound generator of claim 1 wherein the primary acoustic signals are pulsed at a predetermined repetition rate.

16. The sound generator of claim 15 wherein the predetermined repetition rate corresponds to a rate that reduces a thermal rise in the emitter to a value that minimizes compression effects and increases transducer reliability.

17. The sound generator of claim 15 wherein the predetermined repetition rate corresponds to a rate that maintains continuous maximum sensitivity in a targeted human auditory system.

18. The sound generator of claim 1 further comprising a bounding shroud structure to minimize side-lobe radiation and rear radiation to maximize forward radiation directivity.

19. The sound generator of claim 1 further comprising a level monitoring and level setting system to maintain predetermined level maximums.

20. The sound generator of claim 1 further comprising a level monitoring and level setting system to maintain predetermined time-energy maximums.

21. The sound generator of claim 1 further comprising a level monitoring and level setting system to maintain predetermined signal rise times.

22. The sound generator of claim 1 further comprising a level monitoring and level setting system to maintain predetermined signal decay times.

23. The sound generator of claim 1 further incorporating a range finder.

24. The sound generator of claim 19 further including a level relative to distance calibration.

25. The sound generator of claim 23 further including a level relative to distance calibration.

26. The sound generator of claim 1 further comprising:

at least an inner emitter area and at least an outer emitter area; and

an electronic delay function independently controlling the at least one inner emitter area relative to the outer emitter area for optimizing the phase of the total emitter for maximum acoustic output at a given distance.

27. The sound generator of claim 23 further comprising:

at least an inner emitter area and at least an outer emitter area; and

an electronic delay function independently controlling the at least one inner emitter area relative to the outer emitter area for optimizing the phase of the total emitter for maximum acoustic output at a given distance.

28. The sound generator of claim 1 further comprising:

at least an inner emitter area and at least an outer emitter area; and

an electronic delay function independently controlling the at least one inner emitter area relative to the outer emitter area for optimizing the phase of the total emitter for maximum acoustic directivity at a given distance.

29. The sound generator of claim 23 further comprising:

at least an inner emitter area and at least an outer emitter area; and

an electronic delay function independently controlling the at least one inner emitter area relative to the outer emitter area for optimizing the phase of the total emitter for maximum acoustic directivity at a given distance.

30. The sound generator of claim 1 further comprising:

at least an inner transducer area and at least an outer transducer area on the emitter; and

an electronic delay function independently controlling the at least one inner transducer area relative to the outer transducer area for optimizing the phase of the total emitter to control acoustic directivity.

31. The sound generator of claim 23 further comprising:

at least an inner transducer area and at least an outer transducer area on the emitter; and

an electronic delay function independently controlling the at least one inner transducer area relative to the outer transducer area for optimizing the phase of the total emitter to control acoustic directivity.

32. The sound generator of claim 1 further comprising:

at least two adjacent transducer areas on the emitter; and

an electronic delay function independently controlling the at least the first adjacent transducer area relative to the at least a second transducer area for optimizing the phase of the total emitter for maximum acoustic output at a given angle.

33. The sound generator of claim 1 further comprising:

an array of multiple acoustic emission regions forming an emitter face;

said multiple acoustic emission regions alternately staggered in at least a first more forward plane and second more rearward plane in a front to back relationship to maximize packing density for a maximum number of acoustic emission regions forming the emitter.

34. The sound generator of claim 33 wherein the set of transducers in the at least a first more forward plane are time delayed relative to the set of transducers in the at least second more rearward plane to optimize the phase relationship of the at least two planes of transducers areas for maximum output at a far field.

35. The sound generator of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one transducer with enhanced efficiency in range of high sensitivity in human hearing, said enhancement derived from the employment of a high Q transducer resonance in the range of highs sensitivity in human hearing.

36. The sound generator of claim 35 wherein the resonant frequency of the at least one transducer is in the range of 1000 Hz to 4500 Hz.

37. The sound generator of claim 35 wherein the resonant frequency of the at least one transducer is in the range of 2000 Hz to 3500 Hz.

38. The sound generator of claim 1 wherein the at least one transducer acoustic emission region has an initial high pass characteristic of greater than 12 dB per octave.

39. The sound generator of claim 38 wherein the high pass characteristic of greater than 12 dB per octave begins in the range of 1000 Hz to 4500 Hz.

40. The sound generator of claim 38 wherein the high pass characteristic of greater than 12 dB per octave begins in the range of 2000 Hz to 3500 Hz.

41. The sound generator of claim 1 further comprising an aiming feature for applying maximum acoustic energy at a specified target.

42. The aiming feature of claim 41 wherein said feature includes a camera mounted on the sound generator and an associated viewing screen.

43. The aiming feature of claim 42 wherein the viewing screen is located remote from the sound generator.

44. The aiming feature of claim 41 wherein said feature includes a laser-type pointing device.

45. The aiming feature of claim 41 wherein said feature includes a crosshair or bead site structure.

46. The aiming feature of claim 41 wherein said feature includes a magnifying optical lens.

47. The sound generator of claim 12 wherein a parametric secondary tone at a frequency at least one octave below the primary frequency is of greater amplitude than a direct tone radiated at that same frequency for an equivalent voltage input.

48. The sound generator of claim 13 wherein a parametric secondary tone at a frequency above the primary frequency is of greater amplitude than a direct tone radiated at that same frequency for an equivalent power input.

49. The sound generator of claim 12 wherein at least one of the at least one secondary acoustic signal in a lower audible range is less than 10 kHz below at least one of the primary tones.

50. The sound generator of claim 12 wherein at least one of the at least one secondary acoustic signal in a lower audible range is less than 7 kHz below at least one of the primary tones.

51. The sound generator of claim 12 wherein at least one of the at least one secondary acoustic signal in a lower audible range is less than 5 kHz below at least one of the primary tones.

52. The sound generator of claim 12 wherein at least one of the at least one secondary acoustic signal in a lower audible range is less than 3.5 kHz below at least one of the primary tones.

53. A method for generating highly directional acoustic signals in the audio range of both direct and secondary parametric acoustic generation in a sound-supporting medium with said method including the steps of:

a) directly generating at least one high intensity audible tone below 20 kHz from an transducer emitter system having at least one dimension that is greater than that of the wavelength of at least one of the high intensity audible tones;

b) operating the transducer emitter system such that it generates the high intensity audible tone at a level greater than a level that creates a significant nonlinear output in the sound supporting medium; and

c) driving the sound-supporting medium into nonlinearity such that at least one audible secondary output is created in the sound supporting medium.

54. The method of claim 53 wherein the at least one audible secondary acoustic output is less than 10 kHz below the at least one high intensity audible tone.

55. The method of claim 53 wherein the at least one audible secondary acoustic output is less than 5 kHz below the at least one high intensity audible tone.

56. The method of claim 53 wherein the at least one audible secondary acoustic output is less than 3.5 kHz below the at least one high intensity audible tone.

57. An electro-acoustic sound generator system for generating a high intensity directional sound column in a far field comprising:

at least one power amplifier channel adapted to receive an audio signal;

an acoustic emitter having a pass-band region tuned to at least a frequency range of maximum sensitivity of a human auditory system, and having a known high-pass cutoff frequency; and

an emission surface having a length of at least four times a wavelength of the high-pass cutoff frequency for enabling high intensity propagation of a directional sound column for frequencies greater than the high-pass cutoff frequency, and having a depth no greater than one-forth of the length of the emission surface wavelength of the high-pass cutoff frequency.

58. The sound generator of claim 57, wherein at least harmonic content of the audio signal is propagated in a high intensity directional sound column by the acoustic emitter.

59. An electro-acoustic sound generator system to be used as a non-lethal weapon, comprising:

at least one power amplifier channel adapted to receive at least an audio signal;

an acoustic emitter capable of emitting two primary waves in the audible frequency range, wherein the length of the emitter is at least four times a wavelength of the lowest frequency of the primary waves, and the depth of the emitter is less than one forth the wavelength of the length lowest frequency of the acoustic emitter, wherein the dimensions of the emitter enable the primary waves to be propagated in a directional column of sound;

wherein the two primary frequencies are emitted at a sufficient level to drive surrounding air into nonlinearity, thereby creating a secondary wave having a frequency equal to the difference of the two primary wave frequencies; and

wherein the primary and secondary waves are at a sufficiently high intensity level to cause pain to a human target.

60. The sound generator of claim 59, further including an aiming device, for directing the directional column of sound towards the human target.